Tuesday, March 27, 2012

Above is the link to the work that I did for Class 1 at Animation Mentor!
My mentor was Keith Osborn. What a great teacher. At the following link, you can check out his reel! http://keithosborn.com/

Although I am not a master yet, by any means... I am learning so much! I started Animation Mentor in the "Maya Springboard" program and was taught by instructor Michael Howen... a big thank you to him and Keith for all the support and helping me get started on my adventure to learn CG character animation. My reel is only a collection of playblasts and screenshots.. and the screen shots are a bit deformed in the format size of the video, which I plan to fix.

Thursday, March 22, 2012

While going through my computer, I came across some of my old characters...

Model sheets, poses, and expressions!

From top to bottom: Bobby Bread, Loaf, and Krista Crustless

A lot of things about this character are still in the works. I have changed the colors several times and am still experimenting with it a bit. Cat characters may be a little over done, but they sure are fun to draw!

Monday, March 19, 2012

Coffee can be a real life-saver in the mornings. So, I've made it a routine to start Sarah's day off right with a fresh cup.

I started this a while back, and just recently put color to it. Although I would like to add some shading, I think it is looking pretty good so far. This is full of inside references between Sarah and I.

-We both love Chinese food (the labels say "Love" and "Happiness"....
-We both met while working at Porter Hospital and would routinely play "Marco/Polo" to find one another throughout the hospital.
-Under the T.V. are shows and movies we've watched together. On top of the T.V. are flowers, a stuffed "wild thing" and stuffed giraffe ( Something I had surprised her with after a job interview.)
-The frame on the wall mimics a picture we have together before Sarah went blonde, and it is surrounded by movie and concert tickets that we attended together.
-Of course, the pug in my hands is Zoe. She can be wild and crazy... but she is definitely a part of the family.

The loved ones in my life motivate me, support me, and inspire me.
Sarah is a huge part of that inspiration.
So, to Sarah: I love you and thanks for everything.
:)

Monday, September 19, 2011

A big handful of my college/animation friends are big fans of Batman.
To celebrate the release of a new Batman game (Arkham City), they decided to make a 30 day batman drawing challenge.
While I was not able to participate myself, it has been a blast to see their work every week. Its a highlight for me.
Since I've had so much fun checking out their stuff, I thought I would make some art to celebrate their accomplishments now that they are nearing the end of the challenge!

(I drew this a couple weeks ago and just got it scanned, so, I apologize to my buddies Dante Tumminello and Tim Bauer who I didn't find out were part of the drawing challenge until after I had the drawing nearly complete! AHHH! Sorry guys!)

Good job everyone! You make batman proud.
Seeing everyone's contrast in art styles and creativity is awesome and inspiring.
(Miss you guys and gals, hope everything is going great!)

Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Have you ever wanted to be a superhero? I did. (*cough* still do *cough *)

I remember growing up watching tons of super-hero cartoons and collecting comics.

While getting super-powers in real life might be impossible, it isn’t on paper. When you can take the ideas in your head and bring them to life in an illustration (or animation)… the sky is the limit!

After being inspired by comic art and cartoons, in combination with having a very active imagination, I created my own super-hero… BOMB BOY!

It was 4th grade, and on the top margin of one of my homework papers, I drew myself… no fancy suit…just an eye mask, t-shirt, jeans, and a cape. After that, I started getting more creative with the character… giving him super powers, a symbol, and a back-story. I began working on my own comic book soon…my fourth grade peers, along with teachers, family, and friends all got a kick out of it, which only fueled my motivation and creativity. I was bound and determined to get it finished! Eventually, I had it completed at a whopping 56-pages! Making the Bomb-Boy comic was a complete blast.

In retrospect, I can definitely say that creating Bomb Boy and running with the story definitely contributed to leading me into the field of animation. He is one of my first character developments, and creating the comic at such an early age definitely was my first attempt at any kind of storyboarding.

Since his creation in 4th grade, I’ve kept drawing Bomb Boy. Sometimes I draw him different, and sometimes I keep it old school.

This is the most recent "Bomb Boy" art work I've done.

I thought it would be cool to show my process.

First I did a really loose sketch of the pose I wanted.

Then I cleaned it up, changed the pose a little, and put in all the details I wanted.

Finally, I digitally inked and colored to make BOMB BOY.

Here are some more examples of other times I've drawn this character:

This is a version of Bomb Boy that is a little older. I gave him some cool-looking robotic gloves. Gotta have something to hold those powerful charges of energy and bomb explosions, right?

Bomb Boy vs. Big Blob

Bomb Boy vs. Big Blob (again)

Bomb Boy....catching breath. (work in progress... there will be a villain behind him when its complete.)

Bomb Boy vs. Mosquito Man

(Note the wolverine inspiration with Mosquito Man's claws. Awesome)

Now for the grand finale. I thought it would be awesome to show you guys some pages from the original comic. Not only is it cool to see how far my skills have grown since 4th grade, but it is a pretty funny read too. Enjoy!!!

The first 10 Pages of ....Bomb Boy!

Thats all for now, folks. I plan to completely re-do the Bomb Boy comic sometime. I'm sure it will be just as much fun as it was the first time.

Friday, March 11, 2011

Hopefully this will be a good way to keep everyone up-to-date as to what I'm currently working on.

Senior year has kept me pretty busy and is bringing out a lot of good work. My skills have definitely been challenged, but I can already see the improvements.

So, what have I been working on?

I'll go a little image crazy in this first post to help give an idea.

Well, since last semester, I have been involved in a class called Animation Production Studio. In the class, we come up with an idea (the initial concept the class used came from Sarah Harkey. Check out her blog. http://s-harkey.blogspot.com) and bring the idea full circle from pre-production all the way to finish. Its supposed to reflect how working in a real animation studio would be. I've really liked it so far and I get to work with a big group of really talented people.

First semester, I was mostly focused on making concept art and story boarding for the middle sequence of the film. It was a lot of fun. Heres some examples of work I did.

Currently, in the second and final semester of school. APS class is in full production. I've posed and animated a good hand full of scenes. What is really cool is having so many people to bounce ideas off of and get critique from, it really helps the animation reach its full potential. The screening of the APS film titled "Play Date" will take place at the end of May. Really looking forward to everyone seeing it!

On another note, I've continued to work with the bread characters I created a while back.

Good ol' Bobby Bread, Loaf, and Krista Crustless.

I made a short called "When Bread Goes Bad" in 2009 about expired zombie bread attacking on the counter-top...

I had so much fun making it, that I decided to go back to the original story that it was based off of and turn that into a short that I've been referring to as "The Toaster"... It is definitely still a work-in-progress, but I'm excited to have everything rolling and to animate these characters again. Hopefully I will have things pretty close to complete in the next few months!